Former ND Hermes's Text Interview @theguardian.com, 2018 [and corrections]

here, some excerpts and musings:

001. @theguardian.com, Hannah Devlin writes in "The Naturopath Whistleblower: ‘It is Surprisingly Easy to Sell Snake Oil’" (2018-03-27):

"Britt Marie Hermes [..who went] from alternative medicine practitioner to sceptic [...] after an unsettling discovery at the Arizona [naturopathic] clinic where she worked four years ago [...now exposing] the dubious and unethical underbelly of her former profession [...]";

hear, hear.  Skeptic U.S. = Sceptic U.K.  And it's hard to believe four years are all that's gone by.  I like to say 'so-called profession' like their 'so-called science.'

"Hermes is being sued for defamation by an American naturopath called Colleen Huber, in a case that is due to be heard in a German court later this year [...]";

ah, the Streisand Effect.  Might this article not even exist without this lawsuit?  Hmmmm.  And I guess you're also NAMED not called!  Called sounds like an object.

"so enthusiastic is the naturopathic community that within nine days an international fundraising campaign had raised $50,000 (£36,000) to cover Hermes’ legal fees [...]";

ah, no.  Error: opposite word used!  As far as I know, it is funding primarily from the skeptical community.  After all, it is Australian Skeptics who host the fund.  This writing is bad, undermining the usually excellent reputation of The Guardian has IMHO, which I read every day.

"how did a former proponent of natural therapies come to take on America’s powerful alternative medicine establishment? [...]";

if this establishment was so powerful, why is it that an individual naturopath is suing Hermes and not a State, Provincial, or North American political entity?  They don't have the money.  I'd instead also say that sCAM is anti-establishment. 

"Hermes applied to a four-year post graduate program in naturopathic medicine at Bastyr University [...] 'there’s no entrance exams required [...] the alternative medicine industry in general seems to be on the rise in North America and I think in the UK as well [...] the political environment is ripe for that. There’s a feeling that experts aren’t necessarily the best people to trust, whether they are experts in medicine or in another field. When you have figureheads doubting the credibility of mainstream medicine, it creates a ripe breeding ground for the rise of pseudoscience [...] I take a pretty firm stance and say no to all of it' [...]”;  

true regarding entrance testing, and even within that easy-in context, ND programs' enrollments are DOWN.  And it is BU that states, famously in my head at least, "science-based natural medicine that integrates body, mind, spirit and nature."  Which needs A LOT of unpacking to basically show how naturopathy is in my view an unethical sectarian pseudoscience deviance. The tide may be rising for sCAM pseudosciences, but naturopathy's enrollments are not hugely benefiting currently and for the near future.  Good.